Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The last
couple of weeks have been incredibly busy, so busy I did not even have had a single
day off in over a month! I have been working my regular job at the bakery, the
time-share cafe, had some caterings and participated in the Eigengemaakt
festival in Rotterdam, which was great fun! Eigengemaakt (homemade) is a
festival where home producers can sell their homemade foods.

I had a stand
with homemade sweets; a winter brownie, a brownie with rosemary and sea salt,
lemon bar, carrot cupcakes and a pear frangipane. It was so nice to meet other
people with the same interest in food and to get some really nice feedback on
my pastries!

HubStairs,
the time-share cafe I share with 5 other women has been a great place to try
out some new recipes; I made a variation on the bread in the previous post and
it worked out so well! I decided to use rye flour instead of spelt and added
250 grams currants to the existing recipe. The bread was served with goat
cheese and homemade tomato jam. I also made loads of other stuff as well, but will
share those recipes some other time...

Friday, November 4, 2011

While I
am writing this, I am listening to the fabulous new CD of Florence + the
machine, one of my favourite bands/singers. The sky is bright blue and it is
about 17°C outside while we’re in November!

This all
makes me a very happy person, but what makes me even happier is this fabulous bread
recipe with homemade almond butter.

Last
week I bought a great book: Homemade by Yvette van Boven. This Dutch-Irish
super creative woman (she did everything for the book herself, except for the
pictures which are made by her husband) has made one of the coolest cookbooks I’ve
ever seen! She tells you how to make everything from yoghurt and cheese to
bread. The first recipe I tried from the books was the pan-baked bread.

I have
to say that the measurements for the dough didn’t completely work for me, but
with a bit of creativity it did, and worked out fantastic! My dough came out
way to moist and sticky and I had to add a lot of extra flour (about 200-300
gram) to get it to the right consistency, but wait with adding extra flour until
the dough has risen for the first time.

The
bread is baked in a big heavy based pan, such as a Le Creuset, to keep the
moist and steam inside which helps to develop a nice and thick crispy crust.

It is a
bit of a fuss with all the long rising times, but completely worth it! Just
try!

425 gram
flour (I used both spelt and rye flour)

1 tbsp
vinegar

¼ tsp
instant yeast

2 tsp
salt

100 ml
beer

200 ml
water

Place all
the ingredients in a bowl, whisk together with a wooden spoon until a ball
forms. If the dough seems a little too wet, just add some more flour. Cover the
bowl with cling film and leave to rest in a warm place for 8 to 18 hours. (I
made mine before I went to bed, and left it in the oven at ± 40°C).

Place
your dough onto a well floured surface and knead 10 times (if your dough is way
too wet, like mine just add enough flour until you are able to form knead-able
dough). Shape into a log and place onto a deep dish, which is covered with
baking paper. Loosely cover with cling film and leave to rise for another 2
hours.

After 1½
turn the oven on at 200°C and place your (large) heavy-based
pan (with the lid on top) into the oven.

When the
dough is ready to be baked, you have to carefully make a few cuts on top, to
help it rise. Now it is time to place it into the pan; lift the dough (including
the baking paper) carefully into the pan and quickly place the lid back on top.
You have to keep as much heat in the pan as possible.

Lower
the temperature to 170°C and place the pan back into the
oven. After 30 minutes you have to remove the lid and continue to bake it for
another 20 minutes.

Now it
is time to test your bread by knocking on its bottom; when it sounds hollow, it
is done and you have to move it to a wire rack to leave it to cool.

I always
thought it was impossible to bake your own artisan bread, but this recipe shows
you it isn’t.

It makes
your house smell gorgeous and instantly brings you into a good mood.

The
bread can be eaten with everything, but I love mine with some homemade
almond-maple butter.

2 cups
raw almonds

4 tbsp
maple syrup

A pinch
of coarse sea salt

(Almond oil
or another complimentary oil to taste)

Preheat
your oven to 150°C.

In the meantime you
can combine the almonds, maple syrup and salt and spread it onto a baking sheet,
covered with a baking mat or some baking paper. Roast the nuts 15 to 20
minutes, until they have just caramelised and are slightly crispy. Be careful
to not over-roast them, or your paste becomes a little bitter.

Leave your almonds to
cool for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Pour them into a food
processor and blitz until the nuts have broken down into powder. Take the lid
off and scrape down the sides. Blitz again and continue this process until you
end up with a thick butter. To thin it a little and make it more spreadable,
just add some almond or other complimentary oil while blitzing.